Record-Breaking Thread

Saturday - The fourth episode of Chernobyl may be the single most disturbing and depressing bit of television I have ever seen, even considering this is the second time I've seen it. The fifth, with its revelation as to exactly WHY Reactor Four exploded should be a warning to any nuclear engineer who thinks he or she knows what's what in playing with atoms. Powerful stuff.

Today is pretty slow and easy; tonight we have the Mendelssohn 2nd Symphony at Severance Hall. I look forward to an enjoyable evening.

Maybe not quite to the extent of Chernobyl, but have you ever heard of the Detroit-area teenager who was trying to build a nuclear reactor in the '90s? It was kept quiet by governmental agencies, but eventually the story got out, and it is, without a doubt, one of the craziest stories I have ever heard.

Maybe not quite to the extent of Chernobyl, but have you ever heard of the Detroit-area teenager who was trying to build a nuclear reactor in the '90s? It was kept quiet by governmental agencies, but eventually the story got out, and it is, without a doubt, one of the craziest stories I have ever heard.

It's a Saabaru that's been upgraded with performance and luxury additions that weren't options on the Subaru side. Had a '92 Saab 9000T that I enjoyed for more than 10 years but would never go back to one as they've timed out as practical cars. This one is obviously low miles with good maintenance so if you're all tingly and engorged for one of these you'll never do better than this one but there are lots of good or better AWD SUV's for the money.

Rented Parasite last night. We both are not into Oscar movies and definitely not into subtitles but it well worth seeing. Went from laugh out loud funny into edge of seat intense. Definitely well made.

Sunday - Well, the opening Krenek work last night was very little more than your garden-variety 12-tone noise which I have about as much use for as a snake has for shoes. The Mendelssohn, on the other hand, was beautiful and energetic and had the audience on its feet after a time that didn't feel anywhere near the 70 minutes it was supposed to be.

Because the gestation period after contact isn't clear at this point, no one wants their venue to be the next petrie dish that spreads it to fans. Because test kits are behind in manufacture and distribution it's hard to determine if or where it has migrated to.

Understand Lebron's appropriate devotion to fans but if it continues to spread no one will be venturing out to stadiums or arenas whether they're allowed to or not.

Sad and surreal to imagine F1 races, Olympic, baseball and basketball games without fans but those are all possibilities until they get ahead of this thing.

So speaking of things government that don’t make sense. For the Census they want everyone to do 17 hours of online training on the Census website. It’s an official government website. We issued everyone official census computers with wireless SIM cards so they can upload data in real time in the field. Here’s where it becomes 100% a government thing, they can’t use their government computers to log onto the government website to do the government training. On top of that, there are three training modules that require them to take data from their personal computer ( the one that they must use for their official government training, no tablets allowed it won’t load) and type it into said government computer. This makes zero sense at all, but that’s government for you.

Monday - Was up until not quite 1 AM this morning, because my muse all of the sudden demanded my attention. Once I'm done with this, I mean to check my work, see if it was worth the loss in sleep ... and in any case, I might just go back to the sack once my wife is on her way to work! [Y-A-W-N-!]

Flight into bonds has increased bond prices, decreased bond yields, and if the economy tips into recession then the Fed will be fighting off contraction and those interest rates may remain low for a while until there is some sign of recovery on the horizon.

It might be a good year to refinance a mortgage.

I suspect that in a couple of months Ford will be trying to pump up flagging sales volume, and around the end of May there may be some especially very good deals to be had on 2020 F-150 and 2020 Mustang GT (maybe also the GT500), both with big discounts and with low interest rates on long loans.

I also expect that gasoline will be cheap this Summer, including Aviation gasoline, and wet rental prices are closely tied to a multiple of the price of 100LL. So this may be a very good year to get your private pilot's license, or to upgrade to a commercial license, if any of that is an interest.

Tuesday - Well, apparently COVID-19 has arrived in the Buckeye State, but I refuse to panic ... yet. Besides, I still have one comforter to wash at the laundromat today sometime!

COVID-2019 - recent numbers from credible sources that I have seen... from reported cases.

6/7 (86%) have comparatively mild infections, with infection remaining mostly in the head, with lungs not seriously infected.

1/7 (14%) have infections spreading to lungs where things get much more serious

6% require use of artificial respirators and can suffer life threatening secondary infections such as pneumonia and sepsis.

3.4% have died, globally

A vaccine may become available 1 to 2 years from now, with probability of a vaccine becoming available increasing as more time passes.

Reported numbers for effective reproduction rate (essentially the number of people infected by each person contagious with COVID-2019) estimates reportedly are from 1.4 to 6.49, with a mean of 3.28, a median of 2.79.

Test kits just recently became more widely available. Current numbers are based on reported cases, and many infected with the virus may have dismissed it as a mild head cold while infecting others, and that may continue.

So, COVID-19 has claimed the NYIAS. For now anyway. They have officially postponed it until late August. Looks like we'll have to wait for the new Bronco (purported to have been revealed officially at the NYIAS) until then. Unless Ford opts to do a special event. Hopefully, my tickets will be good then. Does throw a little wrench into my vacation plans. I'll live.